WHO CARES? SCOTLAND’S HIDDEN HOMELESS, STV, 8pm
IT’S hard to get the measure of Scotland’s homelessness. The issue gets so easily tangled with that of immigration and asylum seekers; take a look at the comments section of most online articles about homelessness (not just in Scotland, obviously) and it soon descends into an angry debate about whether we should be “taking care of our own” or giving homes to refugees.
And the law seems to confuse matters further: each council has a legal obligation to provide shelter to the homeless, so why are there still people on the streets? Do some people refuse help? Is life on the streets preferable to a council shelter? There are a thousand questions to be asked, and it’s hard to find someone without an agenda who might answer them. This documentary, sadly only 30 minutes’ long, speaks to people who’ve experienced homelessness to try and find the truth.
NIGELLA – AT MY TABLE, BBC2, 8.30pm
TONIGHT, Nigella is proud to say she is the “queen of the frozen pea”, assuring us there’s no shame in using frozen veg in your cooking. There’s also no shame in sneaking downstairs in your dressing gown in the night to bake some squishy brownies.
Yes, this show is all about pretence: we must kid on that Nigella gets up at 2am to cook in an elegant, pastel-coloured kimono in a kitchen glowing with tea light candles, whereas you can imagine the state of the kitchen if you genuinely did go on a baking binge in the small hours. But do pretend, for these thirty enjoyable minutes, that cooking is about elegance and style, not sticky hands and a bulging waistline.
She kicks off her new series with recipes for spicy Turkish eggs, late-night brownies, chicken soaked in Vermouth, and some spiralised, twirly fries.
The cooking is simple, but the glamour is unattainable.
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